Primary Discussion Resources:

• Downloadable Zoom Recording on OneDrive (YouTube recording at the top of  this page)
• PowerPoint Slides (and PDF Too)
• Zoom Recordings and Resources from All Conversations 
• Join the Basecamp Climate Solutions Conversations for ongoing discussion
• This Meetup on Meetup.com

What Can I Do? Getting into Action!  Solutions From Drawdown and Regeneration.org:

• The 15 Minute City (including action guides for Individuals, groups and companies). The fifteen-minute city shifts urban life away from the unit of the car and puts people at its heart. Such cities already exist. In Paris, Portland, Melbourne, and Madrid, fresh food, health-care, schools, offices, shops, parks, gyms, banks, and entertainment are all within a short distance of one’s home. While the exact blueprint for such transformation lies in the specific culture and history of each city, what is clear is that improving access to essential services benefits everyone, but especially the young, the disabled, and the elderly. Designing at a hyperlocal scale does not box us into our neighborhoods. Rather, it allows us to improve livability, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and build meaningful community. The fifteen-minute (or even twenty- or thirty-minute) city allows us to experience the entire city not out of necessity, but out of the joy of urban living.
• Micromobility (including action guides).  Micromobility refers to small and lightweight vehicles. This includes both human- and electric-powered scooters, cycles, skateboards, rickshaws, and cargo bikes. Micromobility has the potential to improve last-mile connectivity to other forms of city transit in areas of low connectivity, while simultaneously addressing congestion, pollution, and emissions, and improving street life and health outcomes.
• Electric Vehicles (including action guides).    Electric vehicles have reached a tipping point toward widespread adoption—and not a moment too soon. Greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector have more than doubled since 1970, with around 80 percent of that increase attributed to petroleum-powered road vehicles like cars, trucks, and buses. Today, such vehicles account for roughly 16 percent of total emissions worldwide, prompting governments, companies, and car owners to accelerate the shift to electric transport. EV technology has advanced rapidly in the last decade, making incredible strides in range, charging time, and affordability. Now comes the next horizon: creating extensive charging infrastructure, cleaning up electrical grids, sourcing batteries more sustainably, and ensuring equitable access for all.
• Transportation Sector (Drawdown.org). Getting people or things from point A to point B, and perhaps back again: In some ways, transportation is incredibly simple. Human beings would be stuck at the speed of walk, run, swim, or horse if it weren’t for planes, trains, automobiles, buses, bicycles, and boats. Mobility has played a critical and complex role in shaping society, and the demand for it is only growing.  Check out all solutions at the bottom of the Transportation Sector page on drawdown.org including Electric Bikes, Bicycle Infrastructure, Electric Cars, Electric Trains, Carpooling, Walkable Cities, and much more.

Resources Shared During Our Discussion:

• Why the Concept of Induced Demand Is a Hard Sell. Both the public and policymakers have trouble understanding why building more roads and highways does not reduce congestion.
• Jevons paradox. In economics, the Jevons paradox (sometimes Jevons' effect) occurs when technological progress or government policy increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the rate of consumption of that resource rises due to increasing demand. The Jevons paradox is perhaps the most widely known paradox in environmental economics. However, governments and environmentalists generally assume that efficiency gains will lower resource consumption, ignoring the possibility of the paradox arising.
• Infrastructure plan calls for fixing the nation’s existing roads. Some states are still focused on expansion. For all the ambition of President Biden’s infrastructure proposal — massive spending boosts on trains and buses and a push to get Americans into electric cars — its priority for the nation’s road network is more basic: Fix them. The Federal Highway Administration estimates a $435 billion backlog of rehabilitation needs, while an analysis of agency data by The Washington Post shows a fifth of the nation’s major roads, stretching almost 164,000 miles, were rated in poor condition in 2019. That figure has stayed mostly unchanged for a decade.
• Move Ahead Washington.  Move Ahead WA is a transformational 16-year package that creates a sustainable, achievable future for our transportation sector. House Democrats hosted over 90 listening sessions to hear the top transportation priorities from communities across the state. This package addresses the concerns we heard and reflects our focus on meeting the needs of every community in WA.Move Ahead WA is a commitment to our values and a promise to put the people of WA first. It’s a future-oriented proposal that addresses the realities people face today while investing in WA communities for tomorrow and beyond.  OPED in Seattle Times here.
• RMi Shift Calculator. The SHIFT calculator enables users to estimate long-run (i.e., after 5 to 10 years) induced vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and emissions impacts from capacity expansions of large roadways in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) or urbanized counties, based on existing lane mileage and vehicle miles traveled data from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
• The myth of electric cars: Why we also need to focus on buses and trains. California recently announced that it plans to ban the sales of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, Ontario has invested $500 million in the production of electric vehicles (EVs) and Tesla is quickly becoming the world’s highest-valued car company. It almost seems like owning an electric vehicle is a silver bullet in the fight against climate change, but it isn’t. What we should also be focused on is whether anyone should use a private vehicle at all.
• Concrete needs to lose its colossal carbon footprint. Wet concrete has been poured into buildings, roads, bridges and more for centuries. Structures using concrete have survived wars and natural disasters, outlasting many of the civilizations that built them1. Alongside its strength and resilience, concrete is also a staple of building because it is relatively cheap and simple to make. Worldwide, 30 billion tonnes of concrete is used each year. On a per capita basis, that is 3 times as much as 40 years ago — and the demand for concrete is growing more steeply than that for steel or wood.
• 15 Minute Cities (Regeneration.org). Everyone living in a city should have access to essential urban services within a 15 minute walk or bike. The 15-Minute City Project is designed to help access-focused urban transformations be what we need them to be: ambitious, inclusive, measurable and effectively implemented. RELATED: Here is the original TEDTalk from Carlos Moreno, the website an article from Bloomberg and a city being built from scratch in Utah around these concepts.

Full Chat Log: